“Younger” star Molly Bernard revealed she got pregnant in an unconventional way.
The actress, who is expecting her first child with wife Hannah Lieberman, shared in a new interview that the couple conceived via home insemination.
“By very lucky chance, my doctor who I’ve seen for the better part of a decade, she is a queer woman. So I asked her, ‘How should Hannah and I enter this world of attempting to have a baby?’” she recalled to People Tuesday, one month after announcing the news.
“And my doctor said, ‘I honestly think you and Hannah, however you decide, should get some sperm and try to have sex at home, the way a lot of the world does it. I would recommend you seeing if that works before you do any fertility stuff, because it could be really fruitful.’”
After Bernard, 34, tied the knot with Lieberman in September 2021, they spoke to a fertility doctor about whether her body was able to carry a baby.
When she was given the go-ahead, the couple turned to a home insemination system that allows people to get pregnant in a non-clinical setting.
“I discovered Mosie Baby one day on Instagram, and I told Hannah about it. It looked really interesting, so we did our research, and we ordered it,” Bernard explained.
“I had just wrapped a movie in Los Angeles, and I was ovulating, and Hannah and I wanted to try that month. So, she flew out, and as a wrap gift, we were able to have sex in the privacy of our own space, and my wife inseminated me,” she continued.
“It miraculously worked.”
When people ask how she became pregnant, Bernard tells them, “”Hannah and I just had sex without a condom one night, and, like, I got pregnant,’ which is funny but also partially true.”
She addded, “We know that this is not the norm, that many couples struggle with fertility issues. Queer or hetero, it doesn’t matter. And so we just feel so lucky that this worked.”
The actress said there was a “cult of secrecy” around the realities of pregnancy and has leaned on the likes of BFF Hilary Duff and her friend Mandy Moore.
“Hilary is basically my mom at this point,” Bernard said.
“I literally call her or text her and say, ‘Hey, Mom, I got a question’ — every little ailment I’ve had, every pain, every bloat, every first kick. She’s been my fearless guide.”
The “Lizzie McGuire” alum, 35, named her “Younger” co-star the godmother of her now-4-year-old daughter, Banks, when she was born in 2018.
Bernard even officiated Duff’s backyard wedding to Matthew Koma in December 2019.
Meanwhile, the 38-year-old “This Is Us” alum, who is a mother of two, also offered the mom-to-be some words of wisdom.
“I recently saw Mandy when I was in LA, and she was a few weeks postpartum and just glowing,” she said.
“It’s funny, [pregnancy] is the most ubiquitous thing I’ve ever done because everyone has been in a womb. … When you reach out to people who’ve done it, it’s just there’s an amazing closeness and solidarity because it’s a tough, big, physical undertaking.”